Found these the other day and haven’t seen anything like it. The sap is running like crazy here and every maple syrup place I’ve passed lately has had a boil on.
I don’t think this is a natural gash in the tree, but rather one caused by logging or other equipment going through. Another tree nearby had a similar injury.
Tried many angles and perspectives for this shot and this seems to work the best.
No, I did not beak them off and eat them, but the sap was sweet and hard to resist.
Specific Feedback Requested
Trying to walk the line between a documentary approach, but also give it a bit of life & drama. Did I not go far enough? Is it too blah? No cloud cover, but the light was softer in the shade & I didn’t want to add too much contrast.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Lumix G9
Lumix G Vario 35-100 f/2.8 lens @ 39mm (78mm equiv.)
f/5.6 | 1/320 sec | ISO 400
Handheld w/wrist & hand braced on snow on the ground
Processed in Lr for basic adjustments and a crop to eliminate some of the bg on the sides. Ps for some dodging and burning around the sapsicles to bring them out more & to remove an offending stick.
Kris, this is a neat find. I love how the ends of some of the sapsicles magnify the bark on the tree. I am wondering though, if this would better fit in the Landscape under Small Scene rather than Macro?
Thanks Shirley. You can put it in another category if you like. I am trying to figure out where to put small slices like this - it’s not really a landscape to me. While it might not be a macro exactly, it seems more like a close up.
Kris, I wasn’t sure either, as it had been awhile since I looked in the FAQ to see the guidelines. So I just went to FAQ, and for Macro it says: “Macro and close-up images of nature. Generally, the actual physical size of the area depicted by the image should be about 4-inches across or less.” So, I think that would make it fit in the Landscape best, and just select the “small scene”. We can hold off a bit, and just see what some others have to say. It being in the best fitting category can help your chances of it being selected for the Editor’s Pick.
Cool! You’re so lucky to live near maple syrup farms! Yummy! I surely would’ve wanted to break off one of those for a maple popsicle! It would be neat if you had one of those old fashioned wooden buckets and put it under to make it look like it’s collecting the sap, and make it a black and white.
Kris, this reminds me of the trees in a boy scout camp, where many of the trees had ax scars as the young scouts tried their new axes on anything that didn’t move… The wedge shape and clean bottom of the cut also suggests that it was deliberate. The long sapsicles make the formatting a challenge. One idea is to crop to a vertical pano, if you want to just emphasize the sap and the tree bark. The oof background fits the scene nicely. It would have been interesting to break off one the little sapsicles and taste it, maybe from a different tree. I’ve tried to make syrup from the sap of a different kind of maple tree and it was a huge chore since you need to do something like a 100:1 reduction. (Sugar maples ONLY need about 40:1)
Thanks, @Vanessa_Hill - The state tree is the sugar maple and they are like weeds here (including my yard). Blue tubing snakes through trees on many roadsides. A sure sign someone’s collecting. Getting it locally all year is no problem.
You know, @Mark_Seaver I never even considered that someone might have taken an axe to the poor thing, that’s how much of a nature pacifist I am, but now you bring it up, that’s probably what did it. I considered cropping more, but liked the environmental details and I’m glad they work.
And speaking of work…syrup is certainly that. A friend of mine tried to make some in college and just about killed herself trying to get a few gallons of sap. She gave up. Crazy woman.
Kris: A really cool find and story. I like the image. To add to your posting confusion you could also post an image like this in Flora. Certainly not a flower but Flora is a pretty broad area of interest with a general guideline of, “if it grows, it goes.” >=))>
